Trekking on the Afghanistan-Pakistan Border

Travel Blog • Eva Holland • 07.31.08 | 2:24 PM ET

This week, the Observer’s Howard Marks is the latest travel writer to brave a trip to Afghanistan, for a trek along the Afghan-Pakistan frontier. The most striking thing about his return to the country, 20 years after his last visit? The nonchalance of locals. “There have been great changes since your last visit,” one old acquaintance told him. “So, would you like to buy a gun?”